Warm dry year = lots of bees

[bogydave]

Wasps would be more accurate

Found 4 nests near the house so far.
Only got stung once

2 hanging under brush piles
&
2 under ground, under the base of trees .
Found them early, they each only had about 20 to 30 in each.

Used Raid & a badminton racket
Gasoline works,
just throw it on the nest or in the access hole, the vapors takes care of the rest.

Anyone else noticing more wasp or hornets this year ?
What's your disposal method?

 

[Hills Hoard]

i thought you said "warm dry air = lots of beers"...

we had heaps around our house last summer, but never pin pointed the actual nest....assumed they were from the neighbors?.....have tried petrol down the hole before and seemed to work....but i did light it.......

 

[bogydave]

i thought you said "warm dry air = lots of beers"...

we had heaps around our house last summer, but never pin pointed the actual nest....assumed they were from the neighbors?.....have tried petrol down the hole before and seemed to work....but i did light it.......

LOL
"lots of beers" That too

Probably catch the woods on fire if l did that,
it's pretty dry here.

Grandpa in WV taught me to just throw gas & not light it.
I use to light it, more fun
but didn't always kill the bees under ground like leaving the vapors in there does.

 

[fishingpol]

Rain has let up in the past week or so and the activity has increased. I got hit 4 times on Saturday at once at the shed door. I am glad they were not white-faced hornets, just yellow jackets. My arm and ear are still swelled. I used regular Enforcer wasp and hornet spray. I am pretty allergic to stings and have to be careful.

 

[ScotO]

We get those nasty bastages every year (ground wasps or yellow jackets, whatever you want to call them). I inadvertently found the last two by running the weedeater......I was covered in them one year as I took the weedeater along the ditch I hit a baskeball sized nest in the ground. Late that evening I took my pump sprayer (which has a concoction of kerosene and used motor oil in it) and filled the nest with it. Propane torch did the rest. You should have seen the different access holes those bees had to that nest.....smoke came out of holes several yards away.....

 

[bogydave]

Rain has let up in the past week or so and the activity has increased. I got hit 4 times on Saturday at once at the shed door. I am glad they were not white-faced hornets, just yellow jackets. My arm and ear are still swelled. I used regular Enforcer wasp and hornet spray. I am pretty allergic to stings and have to be careful.

As I remember them from WV & PA, the big white faced hornets sting almost hard enough to knock you down & chase you a long way from the nest.
I remember the sting really hurts from those guys. Lots bigger than the yellow jackets,
None of them here that I've seen.

 

[fishingpol]

They are nasty. If disturbed, they will attack from quite a few feet away.

 

[ScotO]

As I remember them from WV & PA, the big white faced hornets sting almost hard enough to knock you down & chase you a long way from the nest.
I remember the sting really hurts from those guys. Lots bigger than the yellow jackets,
None of them here that I've seen.

View attachment 106367 View attachment 106368

we were attacked a couple years ago up on the mountain by bald faced hornets.....we were walking through thick laurel in early September in the early morning scouting archery stands for the fall archery season, it was cool out. I was leading through the laurel, I never saw nest but I must have brushed against it...by the time my brother (who was right behind me) got to it, he got nailed....our other buddy (who was 10 yards behind my brother) took a beating, getting stung by nearly a dozen of them.

I never knew I could run that fast through laurel, but I'm betting I was literally running ON TOP of it.......I hate them bald faced hornets...

 

[rideau]

Lots of hornet nests around our property. They like to build nests hanging from my redwood that runs along under the roof overhang. Can't tell you how many times I've been stung knocking down one of those nests, even though I do it carefully, from a distant window, with a long broom or hockey stick, at night, and close the window FAST. Usually I only get one sting though. Then I go out an hour or two later and pour boiling water on the nest.

 

[ScotO]

Doing the tree removal thing like I do, this is always in the back of my mind when we encounter a hollow tree. If the tree is hollow, I sit back for a bit and watch the "holes", to make sure I don't see any bee activity....

 

[fishingpol]

There is a smaller tree like that a few streets over from me. The owner put up warning signs around the tree and it has been there for several years now without bothering anyone.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Bees would be welcome. It's been a very rainy year until recently, but I've had new nests of hornets. I get stung every year and usually it's not something I'd volunteer for, but not that big a deal.

I got it in the calf a couple weeks ago whilst mowing the lawn and it felt like a hot needle- stung for a full 24 hours, and swelled and itched for over a week. I don't know if I'm developing a sensitivity to it now, or maybe I got bit by a tiger or something.

 

[begreen]

Doing the tree removal thing like I do, this is always in the back of my mind when we encounter a hollow tree. If the tree is hollow, I sit back for a bit and watch the "holes", to make sure I don't see any bee activity....

This is the only shot of bees, the rest are wasps or hornets.

 

[bogydave]

This is the only shot of bees, the rest are wasps or hornets.

Being technical :
Hornet is not accurate either, wasp is though.

LOL

IMO, almost everyone calls all of them bees, as a general reference to the bugs that sting.